We’ve been through a lot this year, from politics wearing on our mental health to wellness purveyors trying to sell us stuff we don’t need. Here are some of our best health how-tos, explainers, and mythbusters of 2017.

There’s good and bad news from a November government report on how the nutrition content of processed food has changed over time. The good news: new products often have less sugar, less salt, and more fiber. But that’s offset by a change in fat content: new cereals, yogurts, and snacks tended to be higher in fat.

Sugar has detrimental effects on our health, and not just because sweet foods tend to have a lot of calories. Plenty of research has shown that the same calories of sugar versus other foods do very different things to our bodies. And new research shows how the sugar industry has tried to hide those findings.

Five people have recently told me they were going to “try keto”—the most recent after gushing about a mutual friend who has been doing keto, aka the popular ketogenic diet, and getting awesome-looking results. You’ve probably heard rumblings about keto, but what the heck is it? And is it too good to be true?

Calorie counts were supposed to become mandatory on restaurant menus this summer, but Trump’s new FDA blocked that rule shortly before it was supposed to go into effect. Now the agency has reversed course and says calorie counts will be mandatory starting in May 2018—which is both good and bad news.

If you’ve ever found yourself compulsively refreshing Twitter for the latest god-awful news development—or caught in a vicious cycle with your non-negotiable afternoon candy fix—we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but your mind has been hacked.

“I lost 20 pounds, and I got to eat whatever I wanted!” This is the siren call drawing thousands of people to the nutrition approach known as If It Fits Your Macros, or IIFYM. What started as a way for bodybuilders to cut weight for competition has taken off in the fitness community and beyond. If freedom of choice is…

Maybe failed dieters need therapy for overeating, not food restriction, argues Claire Zulkey in the Atlantic. She describes the cycle that many dieters fall into: a controlled eating plan—this many ounces of cheese, a deck-of cards portion of meat, probably no Cheez-Its—and then the frenzy of overeating that ensues…

Pet food aisles are full of packages that claim to hold “natural” and “holistic” foods, with pictures of fresh vegetables and roast chicken on the front. But there’s not much difference between these foods and the cheapest by-product-filled kibble. Here’s what you can expect to find in your pet’s food.

If you lift weights, you’ve got to fuel your body—but no matter what you pick, chances are somebody at your gym will tell you your choice of snack is the wrong one. So what is the “right” thing to eat? And does it really matter when you eat it?

Walnuts already have an image as a healthyish food, but the California Walnut Commission wanted to know more. A new study asked if walnuts—already associated with lower risks of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes—might deliver some of their health benefits by changing our brains’ reactions to food.

Starting next month, Coke Zero will be gone, replaced with a nearly identical drink that has nearly identical packing and a 100% identical ingredients list. Its replacement, Coke Zero Sugar, will be a bullshit drink, but Coke Zero was a bullshit drink too.

Switching to a plant-based diet won’t mean you’re automatically super healthy. You can eat non-dairy ice cream and frozen veggie pizza every day, but that doesn’t mean you’re any healthier. There are plenty of plant-based junk foods out there, so if you want to reap the benefits of a plant-based diet, you need to…

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who talk about gluten like it’s the devil, and those who can’t roll their eyes enough to show the world how sick of gluten-free labels they are. Does gluten deserve to be so controversial? Let’s dig in.

This world must be a special kind of hell if just smelling food is enough to make you gain weight. The latest headlines on obesity research are saying just that—but smelling is probably only making “you” fat if “you” are a very particular type of mouse.